Bar/Restaurant/Laundromat set to open downtown next summer

Dirty Laundry worth waiting for

Let's face it: there's nothing worse than sitting on your ass with nothing to do while you wait for your tube socks to dry. Wouldn't it be nice to spice things up a bit? Maybe an icy cold beer, a bowl of gourmet mac & cheese — heck, anything would be better than spending hours staring tediously at the hypnotic motion of your clothes spinning around and around on tumble dry low.

Finally, a solution. Teaming up to take the chore out of doing laundry are local entrepreneurs Jason Cronen and Billy Pope. Their future restaurant, dubbed simply, Dirty Laundry, will offer customers the opportunity to do their laundry and enjoy the perks of a swanky bar lounge while they wait. No friers here, folks. Pope, a Johnson & Wale's graduate and former head chef at Il Cortile Del Re, promises a "living room-style" menu full of fresh local produce and healthy organic food options.

The same "green" attitude seems to be applicable to the laundry machinery. Cronen and Pope are paying extra attention to water usage issues, with plans to use strictly eco-friendly, high-efficiency laundry machines. "Our goal is to re-create an environment that is community-oriented, hospitable, clean, and above all, unique," says Cronen. And with plans to be situated centrally on upper King, the potential for success is clear as day.

Good news for those of us who don't mind sticking around for our clothes to get clean, but what about all the busy-bodies who don't have the time (or patience) to hang out? No worries — Pick-up and delivery service will be available. The bad news? We'll have to wait until summer 2010 for Dirty Laundry to open.